A Little Piece of Home

There are few things that tug at your heart strings hard enough to make you want to write about it. For me my family is always on the top of that list. I spent Thanksgiving with A and her beautiful family. I missed my family. I missed the smell of familiar dishes cooking in the kitchen. I missed my grandmothers sweet rice cakes and jaggery. Missed my mothers simply fish curry. Mostly, I think I was just missing home. So to make up for that I did yoga till my body was sore and my mind too tired to think. Then I cooked something that brought a little bit of home back to me. I am sharing it with you here. This should take about 30 mins to make and its best enjoyed with rice. 

Ingredients:

1. 2lbs chicken (preferebly with bones and without skin) chopped into small pieces

2. 1tbs mustard (any kind)

3. 1/2 an onion pasted

4. 4-5 green thai chillies finely chopped

5. 1 tsp garlic paste

6. 1/2 tsp ginger paste

7. 1/2 tsp turmeric powder

8. 1 tsp chilli powder

9. 1/2 tsp black pepper powder

10.Salt to taste

11. Cooking Oil 

Marinate chicken in turmeric, salt, pepper and chilli powder. Add cooking oil into a wok or deep pan and add onions, garlic, ginger and chilli when heated. After onions caramelize add mustard. Add in the chicken soon after and wait till its cooked. 

P.S. I also made a strawberry cheesecake for Thanksgiving. More on that later :) 

Chicken Roll/Frankie Recipe

I first tried this at a friends house on a weekend last year. It was so good that I am sure he does not remember any of my other creations. I have to admit - this could be my signature dish. Here is what you need:

1. 1lb boneless chicken
2. 1/2 cup (5 tbsp) yogurt
3. 4-5 finely chopped thai green chillies (thin tiny ones)
4. 1/2 large onion finely chopped
5. 1 tsp garlic paste
6. Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
9. Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
10. Salt to taste
11. Cooking oil
12. 2 Eggs beaten

For the wrap:
1. You can use ready made tortillas or naan's that are easily available at all grocery stores or
2. Knead the dough using: 2 cups refined flour (white flour), few drops of oil and water. Roll them very thin into circles using a rolling pin. Gently heat them and add some egg to one side while heating.

Method:

Marinate the chicken with the spices, salt, yogurt and garlic. Heat oil in a pan and add onions. When onions are golden brown add the chicken and let it cook. Wait for oil to float to the surface and check if the chicken is cooked.

Take the wrap and put some of the chicken into it. Add some chopped green chillies (according to your taste) and wrap it up. There you go - making an Indian wrap from scratch is that easy!!

Sneak Peek

I promised a sneak peak into one new recipe every week and this is me keeping my promise.

It looks like a wrap so it must be a wrap? Hell no! This is the most delightful street food from my part of the country and it tastes nothing like a bland wrap that you will find masquerading as an Indian wrap. This is called a chicken roll or a frankie. My family swears by my skills when it comes to making the frankie. Also, I make them non-greasy and healthy. Stay tuned to learn how!

Bake a Cake!

I realized that I had been ignoring my other (more hormonal) blog for the past few months. This is what pushed me to start writing about things that I am really good at. Cooking happens to be one of them. Baking - not so much! Any how one of my best friends (Melissa) is celebrating her 23rd birthday tomorrow. However, my semester is in its final throes of labour. Me and another friend (lets call her A) decided to surprise Melissa. So we are going to bake her a special cake. I have had it before and so I know exactly how good it tastes. You can  try it too because in my benevolence I have shared the recipe with you below.


 Like my other recipes, this one is short, sweet and relatively healthy ( well, we are still talking about a cake!) Its a deliciously soft, fresh cake that has some unique but easily available ingredients and a ridiculously easy to follow recipe. So here goes:


Chocolate Chip Pound Cake


1 box yellow cake mix (w/o butter)
1 large box instant chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
3/4 cup oil
4 eggs
6 oz. mini choc. chips
8 oz. sour cream


Preheat oven to 350.  Mix first 6 things. Stir in the chips and sour cream.  Spray tube pan. bake 55 min. (I use 3/4 c. water and 2/3 c. oil.)

P.S. - On a side note, M and A are going later to Esalen (hot springs.) It really is quite an adventure because they are going there at midnight which is a cheaper time to go and staying there till about 4 A.M. I can't go because I have a paper to write for my trade and development seminar. Roll your eyes all you want - but you know where the left over cake is going to be.

Simple Thai Fish Curry

So the picture you saw last week was of a thai fish curry. I know you need a tonne of ingredients to make it the way most websites tell you but here is the simplest way I cooked it. Its delicious and cooks in about 20 minutes. You will need:

1. 1/2lbs of salmon/yellow fin tuna
2. 1 tablespoon garlic paste
3. 1/2 tablespoon ginger paste
4. 2 tbs Sambol Olek ( Its a chilli gralic paste you can find anywhere from Target to Trader Joe's to Safeway)
5. A medium sized onion chopped finely
6. 4 tbs coconut milk
7. Salt to taste
8. Pinch of pepper
9. 3tbs cooking oil

Method:

Heat cooking oil in a pan till its hot. Add the sambol olek/chilli garlic paste, ginger paste and garlic paste to the heated oil. Once they mix in add the onions and let them fry for a few minutes (5 mins apprx.) Cut fish into thin slices or cubes and add it into the mixture in the pan. When the fish has fried add the coconut milk and mix it in. Stir it a little bit and leave for about 10 mins. Thats it! You can try variations of this with prawns and chicken too.

It is that quick and easy and so so so good with rice. Let me know if any of you try it out. Be sure to keep tasting as you cook to determine your tolerance for spice.

In Grad School? Got No Time to Cook? Read On...

This blog is an inspiration from my experiences trying to satisfy my palate in graduate school. Listed below are some classic grad school symptoms:

1. Too little time to exercise
2. Too little time to cook
3. Too much time sitting and reading/typing/researching
4. Free time spend drinking/partying

The bad news is - I don't have a comprehensive solution for all these problems. The good news is - I have a plethora of great recipes that take less than 30 mins and taste delicious. The recipes are from all over the world and on special occasions I will post recipes that take longer than 30 mins but are totally worth it.

I plan to post two recipes each week and give you a sneak peek of the recipe to be posted next. So here is a picture of the first recipe I plan to post. Stay tuned.